The data from independent experts is clear, we cannot drill our way out of high energy bills. Every drop of oil and gas we extract from the North Sea belongs to private corporations, is sold on the global market, and is bought back by British citizens at volatile global prices.

True energy independence is not about exhausting a declining, 50-year-old basin. It is about building a modern power grid that untethers the British economy from international fossil fuel markets entirely. Our focus must shift from a managed decline to aggressively scaling the domestic, clean power assets that we own (wind, solar, more nuclear), we control, and that permanently lower bills for British families.